Why Local Businesses Don't Need Big Budgets for Their Content&nbspMarketing

This post was promoted from YouMoz. The author’s views are entirely his or her own (excluding an unlikely case of hypnosis) and may not reflect the views of Moz.

Time and again we hear the same old argument that we shouldn't be building links, but that we should be focusing on developing exciting and unique content that encourages organic linking all by itself. I completely agree with this statement, but I see businesses misinterpret this far too often.

If you run a local business and have a relatively small budget for your online marketing, is spending that money on a flashy infographic going to be the best use of your resources? More often than not, it isn't.

Big brands vs. local businesses

The marketing goals for local business and multinational brands are often quite similar in basic principle—they want to establish their brand name as a leader within their field and the geographic areas that they serve. The big difference here is that a local business is looking for large levels of brand exposure to their customers on a micro-level (i.e. they want to reach their customers within the local area that they serve). Major brands also want maximum brand exposure to their customers but on a macro level—they want to be recognised the world over, and to do this they need to spend big on reaching everyone.

This is where the content of these two types of businesses becomes different.

Content is EVERYTHING

When we think of "content," we typically think of articles, webpage text, and imagery. This is one of the greatest reasons for failure within content marketing campaigns. Having a very linear and restricted view of what content is will only restrict and inhibit results.

Content is the staff within your business.

Content is the design of your shop/office.

Content is your products and services.

Content is the menus on your tables.

Content is your company values.

Content is your customers.

Content is EVERYTHING.

Let me elaborate a little on the points I've made above. Let's take the example of a local coffee shop (you can take a look at the discussion I had on inbound.org about this as well).

Turning your staff into content

Most local businesses are heavily focused around delivering a high level of customer service to gain positive feedback for their business. Herein lies an amazing opportunity for content that will boost the awareness and reach of your brand.

Within a coffee shop business, the staff are just as important as the food/drink itself. In some cases they are more important. If you have built in strong customer service that sets you apart from your competitors then, believe it or not, people will talk about you. Considering the work that goes into building local citations and reviews for SEO, utilising your staff to encourage these makes sense.

Getting creative with your staff

For years, major international brands have been looking at ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Just look at the likes of Hooters; everyone knows about them because of their staff and the outfits that they wear. One simple thing that has got them where they are today, and that has become one of the most iconic pieces of content within the restaurant industry is the Hooters uniform.

I'm not saying that you should start making all your staff wear hot-pants and revealing tops—as fun as that might sound, but what I'm saying is that you can give your staff a unique edge that makes them a piece of creative content. For example, I visited a coffee shop a few weeks back and some of the staff had aprons on with a big QR code on the front that said "zap me for a 10% discount." When you scanned the QR code you had to like their Facebook page and the member of staff would give you a discount there and then... awesome!

Turning your shop/office into content

Like with your staff, your business premises can become an awesome content example. With the example of a local coffee shop, it's easy to get creative on a small budget to gain attention—create a unique style and do something different. Also, make it easier to tie in your offline presence with your online presence. For example, you could have your Twitter handle stenciled onto the wall. If you want to get really creative then you could have a chalkboard where you write out your recent tweets as they happen in chalk—this would certainly engage your customers within the shop and I can guarantee it would get people talking about you.

Design your space to be unique and it could become one of the best evergreen content assets that your business could have. The above photo is one that I took whilst visiting the Shakespeare and Company vintage bookstore in Paris. I read somewhere that this is one of the most photographed bookstores in the world - you will see why when you step inside!

This is just what many major international brands do—the above image is from the Google Tel Aviv office, and yes, that's a slide! I remember when I visited the Burberry offices in London a couple of years ago and they had a catwalk in the lobby area with models walking down it all day—that certainly got me talking. These ideas are completely relevant and applicable to local businesses, and they don't necessarily need to involve huge slides or catwalks!

Your products are content

The products and services that you offer can both be used within other content or as creative content in their own right. You don't need to have the most unique product in the world, and sometimes this isn't actually possible within standardised product industries. Let's look at a coffee shop, for example.

We might say that our coffee shop sells a range of different coffees, some sandwiches and a selection of cakes/pastries. The first thing you would think of to make them stand out from the competition is quality. The only problem here is that it's hard to show the quality of these products to someone who hasn't actually tasted them; plus, when all of your competitors claim to have the "best quality products," it can be hard to stand out. With this in mind, why not try something a little different...

I know, pretty awesome isn't it? Apparently "latte art" is pretty popular, and to be honest, if that was served in front of me, the first thing that I'd do would be to take a picture and share it on Facebook/Twitter.

Seasonal product themes can be another fantastic way to augment your current product offering and turn it into creative content. At the local coffee shop that I go to, they create crazy cupcake variations on Halloween and decorate the whole shop. That's just asking to be talked about on social media and can result in some tasty links as a byproduct.

Your product/service collateral can be content

I'm guessing that you can see where I'm starting to go with this idea that anything can be content, no matter how boring it is. Let's take some food and drink menus as an example. In its purest form, a menu should deliver the goal of displaying what your business has to offer to your customers. Now, when we bear in mind that over 90% of the customers in a coffee shop are going to take a look at this menu, there is a huge opportunity to get creative.

The above video shows how the Global Mundo Tapas restaurant in the North Sydney Rydges Hotel has replaced all of its menus in favour of actual iPads. The customer can view the whole menu, get more information on each of the different dishes and they can actually place their order live on the tablet. There could be huge potential for linking this in with social media and really connecting the link between online and offline interactions with customers.

Another great example is from Duo restaurant in New York. Their menus actually light up when you open them, which makes them look pretty awesome. Again, this has resulted in the restaurant being mentioned on several niche-relevant blogs that will boost their rankings and give them a wider reach for their brand (it made me notice them, and I'm on the other side of the world!).

The branding of your business is content

The values, culture and vision of your company says a lot about your brand. Multinational brands use their slogans as one of their most valued content assets. If I mentioned "Just Do It" or "They're Gr-r-r-eat!" then you would know exactly which companies/products I'm talking about—this can be the same for local businesses, but on a different scale.

One hilarious example of some amazing branding was from a local sofa company near the place where I grew up, called "Sofa King." They drove around in these big white vans every day that had "Our prices are Sofa King Low!" written on them. They got loads of press coverage from this because they were told they had to remove them and actually got a mention on the TV as well. This may not be the most transferable example but I love telling this story to people because it's just so funny!

Another great way that a lot of cafes and restaurants can use their company values to build content is by partnering up with higher welfare suppliers and institutions. If we look at the likes of the Rainforest Alliance, an international charity focused around conserving biodiversity and improving the working conditions of third-world suppliers. They actually offer a way to certify your business as being Rainforest Alliance approved. This can then be used to build some positive PR around the business, especially within local publications.

Your customers are content

Yes, that's right... your customers are content too. If you run a local business then you're likely to be customer-facing a lot of the time—why not take advantage of that?

I worked on a recent campaign with a UK restaurant chain where we ran a competition to eat free for a year at the restaurant. All you had to do to enter was like the Facebook page, send a tweet (that we had pre-defined) and also give some feedback on their experience at the restaurant. We ended up with over 10,000 entries into the competition and the Twitter account was going crazy for weeks. We ended up driving back some good quality links to the website in the process by running an effective link prospecting campaign alongside this, but more importantly we grew the social following dramatically and had loads of people talking about the brand.

Another tactic that I've used in the past, and a tactic that could be used within the coffee shop example, is to bring in a group of bloggers and let them eat for free in exchange for writing up a blog on their experience. It's important to keep things impartial here, but getting a write up from a respected blogger can do wonders for your brand and will be an awesome link back to your website—it doesn't cost a lot either.

Content is EVERYTHING

As you've probably now realised, content doesn't just mean blog articles or infographics. Content can come in the shape of all sorts of things, both online and offline. The important thing is to understand the end goal of your content marketing strategy and how this then ties in with your social media and SEO campaigns.

When run on their own, content marketing, SEO and social media can be very expensive for local businesses, but when you integrate these together and take full advantage of the resources at your disposal, it will be both cost effective and bring in far greater results.

This doesn't need to apply to just local businesses either. A perfect example of this is with the post that I wrote for Moz a short while ago that was a case study on the link building campaign that I carried out for my travel blog. Case studies are a fantastic way to squeeze out more links to your website and can be awesome pieces of content that can apply to blogs, major brands and small businesses alike.

A few actionable content ideas for local businesses

Your staff:

Have your staff wearing unique uniforms that will get people talking about your brand.

Encourage your staff to interact through social media with customers.

Record videos of your staff at work that shows off their expertise (this could be a tutorial video on "how to bake the perfect cupcake," or "how to spray your car bumper"). It doesn't have to be amazing production work; an iPhone will often do the job here.

Leverage your highly skilled staff within the business to become well-known figures within their niche. This can be through holding small meetups with the local community, through answering questions within niche-relevant forums/social media groups or putting together weekly recipe cards.

Run themed events on-site and have your staff live tweet with updates throughout.

Encourage creativity from you staff and create a working environment that promotes spontaneity—take a look at this article to see what I mean.

Have your staff speak at local events.

Your premises:

Create a funky design to your office/shop that is going to invoke conversation.

"Socialise" your shop front by including your social media accounts within the décor. For example, having your Twitter handle stenciled on the wall.

Offer free WiFi to customers on the condition that they "like" your Facebook page.

Go old school and have a chalkboard Twitter feed that your staff will write updates on by hand throughout the day.

Have a live feed of the shop/office running all day on your website.

Run themed nights where you decorate the whole place up in a unique style. Make sure you take loads of photos and share them across your FB/Twitter/Instagram/Pinterest.

Your products:

Offer discounts on your products when a customer shares them via social media.

Differentiate them in a way that will invoke an emotional response from your customers; for example, latte art.

Create seasonal product range themes that will get mentioned.

Send out free samples of your products for review to bloggers.

Run small focus groups to get feedback on your products/services. Record the whole focus group and post the video through your YouTube channel. Even better, run a live Google Hangout focus group and do the whole thing online.

Run some promotional coupons and submit them to coupon/discount offers directories.

Run product giveaway competitions that require social engagement to enter. You can also do these to gain feedback on products and then share your results within a short blog.

Product/service collateral:

Spice up your menus and include social media links within each of them.

Add QR codes to the bottom of your till receipts.

Create 101 guides and eBooks that are related to your niche.

Your Branding, Values and Culture:

Do something controversial. It doesn't work for everyone but it can be one of the quickest ways to get your brand out there.

Partner with local charities and schemes.

Sponsor local events.

Create a unique and recognisable slogan for your business.

Create mascots for your business and give them a full back-story. You can even go to the length of giving them a social media account and start tweeting as them. Look at Roger Mozbot as an example.

Your customers:

Run surveys and polls with your customers and publish the results on your website and social media accounts.

Encourage customers to engage with your brand on social media whilst they're with you for an incentive.

Run weekly giveaway competitions on Facebook that involve your customers having to tag a friend in the comments of the post and sharing it to their friends. When they receive their free product/service—get a photo of them and post it across your social media page.

Have a ‘customer of the week' that you single out and give a freebie to or record a special thank-you video for their custom.

Invite a group of bloggers into the shop for some free product testing and ask them to blog about their experiences.

Run a weekly/bi-weekly/monthly live Google Hangout with some of your loyal customers (you may have to incentivise them) to get feedback on their experiences and post it to your YouTube channel.

Some comments from our Inbound.org discussion

Victor Pan:

Content for content's sake doesn't work. ‘Doing' SEO without knowing what you're doing doesn't work. However, both methods work when executed correctly. It's not whether or not it is done, but rather how it is done.

Time is scarce for small businesses. They don't have time to learn the ‘how' and execute it correctly on their first try. All too often, they visit the wrong neighbourhood on the web and do what they've learned... or hire the wrong people.

Bad blogging (scraping/plagiarism/panda) can get you penalized just as well as bad links (irrelevant neighbourhoods/fishy anchor text/penguin) - so I wouldn't be so quick to say one is better than the other, or that you need both.

Have you run into a business that has gone through the hands of a rogue SEO who did low quality content spun from a competitor and a list of comment links from forums? I have. It's not pretty.

If I had to choose, I'd say it's easier for small businesses to be smart about content generation. SEO? That's not part of their core business - it's inefficient for them to learn it beyond the absolute fundamentals.

Martin Harris:

Whilst the above analogies are great, i think the point here is how to get the best out the client's time. Ultimately it's what going to be getting them more traffic and if (like most of my clients) you pay an hourly rate; 3-4 hours a month of SEO specific time, content marketing, won't cut it.

But here lies the problem; they should be treated as separate entities.

Put it this way: would creating great promotional and traffic relevant content on social media drive more traffic or would ranking for a targeted niche relevant term?

It's both.

For small businesses, getting natural links from content marketing should be a by-product not a SEO strategy.

Slava Rybalka:

1) as for me, content marketing involves both, and first of all, it's like you said, being creative and notice what is going on in your daily business operations and what you can turn into content

2) I have seen the same effect, however, I tend to focus more on content rather than links, because: 1. Links tend to disappear over time, whereas your contents stays on your site, you don't have control over your links but you have control over your content 2.if you have content that resonates with you target audience, great links will come naturally and recently we have seen the cases when few links can make a difference in search results, since Google is focusing more on quality of links. There are other things that come to my mind but these are 2 main points.

Great article! I also think featuring your employees across social media is great, showcasing their personality and how they bring your brand to life is a great way for people to connect with them. So, not only do they get the great customer service in store, but that they can continue to feel "at home" with your business and employees while at home. Especially when employees have a unique talent, I think it is great for a brand to share that and encourage conversations about their employees creativity and individuality.

The most engaging brands on social media are always leveraging their customers and employees within their content marketing. A fantastic example that has been run recently within the UK is with Paddy Power (the UK bookmaker). They have been running TV advertisements based on messages that their fans have posted on their Facebook page - great idea that creates loads of synergy across their wider marketing campaign and has dramatically increased engagement on their social media accounts.

Still amazed you've managed to turn our simple office debate into a 3,300 word post Matt! Your own creativity is still always surprising me.
I'm also liking your new style of adding TL;DR onto the end of your entire post, makes my job easier (maybe you should include it in your work emails? ^.^
The QR code Coffee shop was a nice touch as well. Though I'm all for link building when it comes to SEO, I think looking at content marketing for business generation (especially when you're small) can be a lot stronger.
Afterall, it's all about the ROI!

These are all really fantastic ideas. I especially like turning to your staff for content. These are the people that interact with your customers day in and day out. They are already champions of your brand and (hopefully) love coming to work every day. You want to tap into that knowledge and that excitement to come up with new ideas and ways to connect with your audience via content.

Agreed - and it doesn't cost huge amounts to do so either. A lot of great content opportunities are often sitting right in front of you, it's just a case of identifying them and taking advantage of them.

This is a great article in a true sense. My vote for "Your Products are content ", "Your Premises are content " and "Your customers are content"

Ok now come to the real time scenario. I'm currently working for a local Beauty Salon and I belong to the other part of the world how can I advise my client to follow these real gems steps? I mean as an Inbound Marketer how can I convince to my client to follow these?

Thanks for the comment, Umar. I try to always keep a very close relationship with my clients and try to bed in a culture within their businesses that helps them identify opportunities. With you client, I would advise running some workshops with them and educating them on the types of things they should be looking out for - within beauty salons, the customers can be used for fantastic content pieces. Before/after photos and video makeovers could be a good starting point maybe...

Having had my car MOT (a yearly road safety check) done today, I couldn't agree with this article more. The garage, though not a fancy Honda dealer, impressed me so much that after a couple of small repairs, I ditched my normal garage and returned to them because I felt so comfortable and looked after. Values, Integrity, Politeness ... all great content!

Matthew, this is a really great post with some equally awesome tips! I really liked the comment Slava touched on that we typically have more control over our content than we do with links and that coincidentally enough, if the content is share-able, links will naturally come. I truly never thought of it that way. Perhaps, like you said, we should focus more on creating content rather than 'building' links.

Little known fact - I used to be a cowboy hat wearing waiter at a Tex-Mex restaurant in Asia. I hosted cowboy-themed game competitions during non-busy hours and recorded them. It wasn't long until I started seeing famous bloggers commenting in on the food, decor, and events.

Yes, little gimmicky things about your business will help you create content!

Working inside a small business everyday I've seen the success that staff content creators can bring... It's incredibly hard in some instances to get staff buy-in as many staff members in a small business didn't take their position with content marketing in mind.

However, if you can get that buy-in, for all the reasons you mentioned above, growth will be exponential. It's amazing really.

After Google Updates, i am investing more money on content as it has become the soul of SEO and all the time i was wondering with one question in mind -"how can i perform more effective content marketing in low budget " and trust me i just loved the post. In recent time, we have seen that local market has also become very competitive as well. Your post is appreciable and effective.

You have pointed out some really creative ideas here, I have not read about producing content this way before. I hope you don't mind but your article has spurred a few ideas! I really like the idea of writing out tweets on a blackboard. It would also be nice to collect twitter ID's of customers when they visit and write out tweets where they mention you or just add some of their interesting ones about the local area, that way when they come in they can see it, people love to know that brands take notice of them.

Again why not invite bloggers to name a dish for the week , get them involved in cooking the meal, produce more photos of a process and not just the ending.

Anything creative brands/Local businesses do they should place it on Pinterest or even Instagram, it's free and a good way to get creativity shared and written about (natural links). Again take it one step further and print out instagrams to make an interesting wall collage offline and include your follower photos (maybe ask permission though!)

I like the idea of creating ideas and then taking them a step further and then another step further, like artists, do it really helps in building Content Marketing :)

Great list of actionable ideas, Matthew! You've made an excellent point about using employees and their interactions with customers for content. I would say most of the online reviews I've written have been about an interaction with an employee (either very positive or very negative).

Thanks, Caroline. Reviews and testimonials are a great way of building a solid brand image and generating direct business. It makes sense to take advantage of these within your wider content marketing because there's a huge scope for creativity!

I agree that content goes way beyond the written word, I'd say it's about creating an experience... You want your customer to walk through the door and find a place that is fueled by passion.

Your example of the coffee shop is spot on. If you are a coffee lover and you were to find a shop where people are as passionate as you are about coffee, you've found yourself another home. You look around and there's more than a counter and table; there are accessories (e.g. beans, grinders, coffee stencils), and there is stuff to read (e.g. books, books, books), and there are things to do (e.g. weekly meetup for regular customers where you present new products or ask feedback about new ideas, a coffee club, coffee 101 classes), and there is a film to watch (why not?), and there is a smell and a taste that will stay with you when you leave the building. Having a coffee in such a shop would be an experience to remember, beyond a simple commercial transaction.

Yes! I couldn't have put it better myself. Content is all about triggering a positive emotion from your target audience. Delivering more than just a transaction is exactly what every business should be aiming for, but businesses that have the customer in close proximity are in a position to capitalise upon this. Anyone who has had an awesome experience at a business is much more likely to talk about/follow/engage with the brand in the future - that's how you build a brand!

Matt, This is a brain washing post for a person who think that content is restricted to article writing, blogging and may be videos and photos! The examples you have quoted to give a wakeup call are awesome!

I agree with the fact that content is king but if you are going to limit it to articles and blogs you might be wrong now this is the real form of content that have the power to be the king!

Thanks Moosa, really appreciate your comments. Yes, I think the key point that I'm trying to make is that content doesn't need to be in a conventional form - content is everywhere within a business and it is our job as marketers to identify opportunities!

Agreed. Sponsored posts are pretty much essential considering that only around 16% of your Facebook following will see any of your posts - most of the social media budget that my clients spend is focused around increasing the reach to their current following.

This is one of the best articles I've read about local marketing applied to social media. Starting from your ideas it's possible to create other ideas to increase your local brand awareness.

For example, I recently started developing a mobile application for a local bar in Italy, which engages customers by letting them play with friends, gain points and win prizes. But thanks to your article I have now other ideas to experiment.

Bottom line: Create your Image - Be Your Image - Educate Others About Your Image - all the rest of the SEO snivel is exactly that. Follow best website practices and be the best - most interesting facet of information, education or entertainment about your image, product or service in order to rank well. If your content stinks - then chances are so do you. Marketing budgets should be routed towards good content, great idea creation and interesting - out-of-the-box campaigns (even if it's a paper flyer that has a silly crossword puzzle to win free ice cream cones from McD's or something inexpensive) -- hear me scream "creativity" because the web is inundated with the teacher from Charlie Brown...

*grin* Love TL;DR --- But truth is - I'm finding the practices of most SEO places to only be Job Security and bordering on gray or black activity.

Hey Meki - yes, agree with a lot of your points. I hear a lot of people complaining that they spend a lot of time creating 'great' content and they haven't seen any results - truth is, their content isn't actually that 'great'. It doesn't need to be big budget, all it needs to do is appeal to and connect with your target audience.

AMEN to that truth - Great content leaves a lot to be desired from some writers. ;)

Professional content writers are out there. And truthfully - it's time people stopped trying to game the search engines - but instead - actually built their sites to be the BEST location for their products, services, company or information...

Amazing article!! Very Good point of view. Thank your for the post. Good to see your insight on Content marketing. Totally agree with all the said points and your views. With amazing and informative content, small businesses can also make their place. Thanks for sharing.

As a real estate agent, and therefore a small business owner I use many different local topics of content to write about. I find that there is never a loss of things to write about as my market wants to know everything the community has to offer even if it is not about real estate. Knowing the best topics to share and keep things varied is what I aim for. It can take a lot of time to gather info and write about things, but guest bloggers can help with the topics.

Great post, Matthew. Content marketing for a local business in a competitive market is always a challenge. Do you track ROI for any of these campaigns (ex: using Google Analytics to track offline conversions)?

I totally agree with Mathew..content marketing is not just confined to content rather the different segments such as quality products and services along with unique representation do really make a huge difference in creating a brand. Evolving new techniques to serve customers and make them happy for what they are getting will surely boost business. for me most important is quality and customer satisfaction which will surely get your content spread easily empowering your content marketing strategy. Great sharing Mathew...thanks for this. :)

Am glad that this post promoted to the main page because it deserves that.

All the points you mentioned are truly exceptional & correct. I think I need to show this to one of my friends small business who is looking build his brand but getting nowhere. He is into making wooden toys & I think I got some actionable points from your post to show him like to create a video explaining how to make wooden toys or how to design beautiful wooden toys?

This is a very helpful article because many of the big companies within Marketing and SEO only say to create unique content, then a mention of 3,000 words pops up which kind of points us in the direction of our blogs only.

Some great ideas as well, I may be suggesting one of them to a client of mine.

Wait, local SEO just turned into Business 101? Nice! The other side of the coin is not implementing these tips. You will produce little content or you screw up one of these and you get some bad content harming your business. People sure do love to tweet about snobby staff members and a poor customer service.

I read the article and really loved your examples "sofa king" much. I am going to have that slogan stuck in my head for weeks, but that was an example of really good content that was really cheap to produce. I like blogs like this on Moz because I have turned several small business owners, that did not have the budget for an SEO, onto the site because it provides tips that anybody can use and not just the techy experts. Also, I get feedback from these people regarding the site and how useful it is. In the end, I have even had a few return as clients when they eventually have the budget to hire an SEO because I provided them the site and had open discussions with them, free of charge, on the subjects. I think this is a direct result of the site and the business owners seeing how important a comprehensive SEO strategy is.

Thanks for an intersting list. One of the things I think most businesses miss is that, they are creating content all the time-it is often a process to put that content on the web though, even if the end result is often a huge positive.

Great post. I imagine a lot of the actionable items are only pertinent to specific industries, though. For example, I work with assisted living facilities (nursing homes). Our potential clients are older (to say the least), less tech savvy than the coffee shop crew, and the staff is incredibly busy. How do you create engaging content with a client who is reluctant to learn what we do and is unwilling to help?

I think that in these cases, it's your role as an online marketer to identify ways in which you can get your client contributing. I'm not saying get all the elderly staff in Hooters uniforms, but start small and show them how it can have a direct effect on business (this is a key motivator for clients). I've worked with clients within this industry and I found that creating things like video case studies about the life journeys that residents have is an easy sell to the client - you can manage the promotion and distribution of the content for SEO/social benefit and they can have a create bit of content that they can use to build their brand.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I think I'll hold off on suggesting the Hooters uniform. I was recently approached by a vendor who provides video interviews and archives for residents. The resident would have to purchase the "video", but the facility would receive access to promoting the finished product. And the vendor does their own online marketing to promote videos when finished. I thought it was a good idea when he pitched it to me, but hearing you also promote the concept of video case studies has me more intrigued.

To be honest - I think you've missed your targeted audience. You're thinking of your clients as the target client. If you're a good marketer you're going to start a lot younger than that. McDonald's aims at children. While I don't think you should aim your marketing at children, I don't think that already needing assistance people are the market you should be reaching. The generation prior to that should be your interest level range. They will be the children of the people in assisted living - and they will be the ones in charge - or... they may be the ones who choose to settle their accounts earlier in life.

Very useful stuff for the small biz. I think you are absolutely spot on with the fact that content marketing gets misinterpreted as spend big bucks on graphics and written text. Content can be so much more than that, not to mention the same old thing gets boring quick. Originality gets shares, likes, links and you can often create some great original content with what you already have.

As crazy as it is, I used to work for Abercrombie for 5 years, both in the field and corporate.

All we talked about was creating an amazing "in-store" experience for our guest... with amazing people and real conversations and visual, well, stimulation... (good looking guys and gals bring in guys and gals).

We were creating content the entire time. Abercrombie is a crazy company to work for, but they get a lot right...

Some great examples in there that to some extent highlight that it's about the client's attitude. Some small businesses are just not willing to try anything like the above or otherwise, thinking it'll be time and effort with no guarantees, and convincing some of them to try it can be tough (especially since it doesn't always work). So it still comes back to the old issue of budget a lot of the time. It goes to show though that those who dare... might win :)

Matthew :) It was awesome to read this article completely at present I'm working with many clients for UK market they all are from travel industry, I'm managing their all WebPage Content and article writing and marketing part.

Many time's I got one question from my respected customers about some of mistakes in phrases words and comma's, and also I’m trying to correct those all.

Kindly suggest me how can I attract more customers on my Writing work.

My recommendation would be to look at building a team of content writers instead of writing the content yourself. If you find that your written English isn't great then this might have an effect on your results. Try connecting with some good travel writers and paying them to write up some good content - usually they will take there own unique photography, which can be a big bonus.